1-54 London

Sakhile&Me is excited to present a selection of works by Osi Audu and Nnenna Okore at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair at Somerset House in London, taking place during Frieze Week from 2 - 6 October 2019. The Frankfurt-based gallery will participate in the fair for the first time.

Osi Audu's practice over the last three decades has consistently focused on abstract art that retains some figurative elements, forming a series of geometric acrylic paintings in contrasting colors and monochromatic grey and black drawings. Following the Yoruba concept of Ori Inu ("the inner head"), Audu's works - most of them portraits of the self (hence their title "self- portraits") - raise questions about the dual and oftentimes multifaceted nature of "the self" and draw attention to the head as a signifier of consciousness and as an object of self-knowing.

Audu received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Ife (Nigeria) in 1980 and his Master of Fine Arts degree in Osi Audu from the University of Georgia in Athens (USA) in 1984. Audu's work has shown in prestigious institutions such as Iwalewa-Haus (Bayreuth), the British Museum (London), the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of African Art (Washington D.C.) and the Museo Di Palazzo Grimani during the Venice Biennale. He lives and works in New York.

Nnenna Okore is best known for her fiber sculptures whose intricate textures and vibrant colors reference organic elements and explore themes of transience and transformation. Made from burlap, cheesecloth, rope, yarn, paper and wire, they form richly textured installations sprouting from the walls like organisms growing out to meet the space. More recently, Okore also began creating textured acrylic and clay paintings reminiscent of fossil-like structures and topographic landscapes, inviting the viewer to contemplate the passing of time and prompting an excavation of life forms drawn from memory and imagination.

Okore was born in Australia, raised in Nigeria and Swaziland and is currently Chair of the Art Department at North Park University in Chicago. She has received her bachelor's degree in fine and applied arts from the University of Nigeria Nsukka and her master of fine arts degree from the University of Iowa and has trained with El Anatsui, Chike Aniakor and Chijioke Onuora. Over the last two decades, the 2012 Fulbright Fellow has shown in over 100 solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Okore lives and works in both Nigeria and Illinois.